Steganography is the practice of hiding messages or other content such that the existence of the hidden message or content is unknown to anyone except the sender and the recipient. Steganography differs from cryptography in that the existence of an encrypted message may be known others beyond the sender and recipient. While cryptography provides security though obfuscation, steganography may provide security through concealment. As encrypted messages are vulnerable to cryptanalysis techniques to decode an encrypted message, cryptography may be combined with steganography such that the existence of the encrypted message itself goes undetected. Steganographic techniques may include hiding messages in computer-based image files, audio files, video files, and other types of computer files.
While steganography may be advantageously employed to exchange secure communications, it may also be employed to surreptitiously transmit sensitive or confidential information. Organizations that deal in sensitive or confidential information are dedicated to maintaining the privacy of such information. Therefore, these organizations may be interested in steganalysis techniques to detect the use of steganography.
Steganalysis refers to the detection of steganography used to hide messages or other content. Although research has been conducted into developing steganalysis techniques there remains room for improvement. In particular, organizations such as business and other enterprises may generate thousands—if not millions—of communications daily. Monitoring all of these communications for potential hidden messages or hidden content can be a challenge. Therefore, a need exists for improved approaches to detecting the use of steganography.